Summary Of Tillie Olsen's Yonnondio From The Thirties

The nineteen thirties or depression era, is often revered as a difficult time in American history where the strength and goodwill between fellow Americans shines through. Tillie Olsen’s Book Yonnondio From The Thirties, contrasts this ideal. Olsen’s book gives a raw telling of how brutal and harsh it was living during the depression era, through the story of an impoverished American family. Olsen centers on the immense hardship of the Holbrook family during the late twenties and thirties, where tension runs high and the quest for “The American dream” is without end. Olsen tells the tale of a wife and mother during this time in history through Anna Holbrook. The tension between Anna Holbrook and husband Jim Holbrook is painfully evident from the start of the book in their Wyoming home through the ending in Omaha, Nebraska. Olsen tells the tale of a young girl during the depression through little Mazie Holbrook, an imaginative child whose dreams are squandered by a childhood lost through premature responsibility and a reality unsheltered. The difficulty of being female during this depressing time in history, through …show more content…
The reader is fully submersed into the emotions of a family fighting to survive in a country trying to do the same. The dreams of a child for simple pleasures like fresh air and story time, are mirrored by a parent’s desire to work for a better future for their children. The struggle of being a woman during hard times in history, beginning as children, is told with insight that will leave the reader with more emotional understanding from the great depression than a history book can provide. Yonnondio From The Thirties by Tillie Olson, leaves the reader devastated for the subjects but thankful for the hope and tenacity that individuals during the Depression era were able to maintain to keep “The American Dream”